Re: Train Hopping LA-SFO /Good Way to Die-Not
Author: George Andrews
Date: 03-15-2018 - 19:13
BOB2 Wrote:
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> I believe that was the big El Nino year. IIRC
> this happened just a few months before I hired
> out. SLO had a series of bad ones around that
> period. Another friend of mine, who had hired out
> on the RR, was also hurt and lost his foot on the
> UP in May of that year, so my mom wasn't really
> keen on my going to work on the RR at 18.
>
The winter of 1968 - 69 was a bad one in SoCal. The Espee Tustin Branch lost the trestle over Santiago Creek in Orange; the line was shortened back to Villa Park / Wanda afterwards. Santiago Blvd. bridge also washed out, as did Irvine Park. A big mudslide hit the fire station in Silverado Canyon, killing several people who taken refuge there after smaller slides ( a result of the Paseo Grande Brush Fire of 1967 ). I still remember watching houses floating down Santiago Creek in Santa Ana. I also recall flooding in Azusa Cyn., and Santa Fe's Redlands branch washing out near Mentone.